Dedication Speech by Lady Augusta Inskip      

“It gives me great pleasure to come and unveil this statue to our great national poet.   Every year on the 25^th of January great gatherings of Scotsmen take place to celebrate the anniversary of his birth, and at these gatherings great speakers draw attention to the life and works of Robert Burns. I know that you will not expect me on an occasion like this to try and rival those great speakers or to say a great deal about Burns as a poet.  Indeed I feel very diffident in coming at all among so many who are far more fitted than I am to perform this ceremony.   But we all know that the songs and poems of Robert Burns were built on truth and beauty, and that they will therefore last as long as there are people alive who can appreciate these virtues – the foundations of all enduring work.  I do recollect an anecdote that appeared in an article on Lord Tennyson.    The article was written by an intimate friend of the Poet Laureate and described a country walk which and Lord Tennyson took together.  On the way the writer asked Lord Tennyson what lines of his own poetry he considered the finest.   Tennyson then recited some of his best pieces but suddenly broke off  sat down by the roadside and to the surprise of his listener began declaring these lines of Burns:-

‘The trumpets, the banners fly,

The glittering spears are ranked ready’,

and said ‘How I wish I could have written these lines.   Tennyson went on to say that in his opinion Burns was the great master of lyrical poetry.   Though many Englishmen, like Tennyson, have praised Burns as poet, I think English people are a little puzzled at the intense fervour with which the memory of Burns is celebrated by the Scottish people, not only in Scotland but wherever the Scottish race has penetrated, and that is every corner of the world.  The truth is that Burns to us is more than a great poet,  he has become a symbol of the Scottish nation and has celebrated a supremely Scottish virtue which, I hope will always be characteristic of our race – what he himself called ‘ The glorious privilege of being independent.’  It is therefore fitting that we should set up a statue in Portpatrick to tell future generations that we were not unmindful of this great man and the national heritage he has left us.”